A HARARE court yesterday acquitted Mt Pleasant legislator,
Samuel Banda (MDC Alliance), who was accused of contravening a section of the
Electoral Act by falsifying his home address for the purpose of registration to
represent the constituency.
Banda (43), who was represented by Job Sikhala, was
acquitted by magistrate Learnmore Mapiye after a full trial.
In acquitting Banda, Mapiye ruled that the whole case was
as a result of sour grapes and bitterness by two people who lost elections to
the MP.
During the defence case, the court heard that there were 14
other people who registered the residence as their home and Mapiye ruled that
the owner of the house, Isaac Chidavaenzi, who was the witness, actually had a
case to answer on why 14 people used his house to register for voting.
The magistrate further ruled that all the 14 people could
not have registered at his house without his knowledge.
Sikhala had told the court that the matter was purely a
fight between the MDC-T, led by Thokozani Khupe, and the other MDC led by
Nelson Chamisa.
The magistrate ruled it was regrettable that factional
fights had found their way into the courts.
Banda had told the court that the complainants, Warship
Dumba and Chidavaenzi, wanted to settle their scores against him as they wanted
his position.
Chidavaenzi lost the position to Banda in the parliamentary
elections, while Dumba wanted the position, but was relegated to council
elections.
After the ruling, Sikhala said it was the most difficult
case he had come across, whose inspiration and foundation was bitterness.
“Dealing with bitter losers is the most difficult
pre-occupation. However, I was so patient and took the two bitter men (Dumba
and Chidavaenzi) on their journey of bitterness and sour grapes,” Sikhala said.
Allegations are that on December 28 last year, during the
national biometric voter registration exercise, Banda misrepresented to the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that he was residing at number 34 Waller Avenue
in Mt Pleasant, Harare, in order for him to register as a voter in that
constituency while in actual fact, he did not reside there.
Peter Kachirika appeared for the State. Newsday
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